Tag Archives: mental health

I wrote about my 2022 Intentions (as an alternative to resolutions) during the new year. After wrapping up March it’s time to reflect again. As a reminder, “intentions” are the behaviors and attitudes that I intend to promote and champion within myself each day. The intent is to do (be) my best on any given day…in any given moment. There are no rules. No broken promises. Just good intentions.

Woah! March was a tough one. I really struggled throughout the month. “My best” proved to be a lot less this month than prior months. Not as an excuse, but just as context I started this month trying to recover from a cold and we’ve been in and out of lock-downs (currently in) due to Covid restrictions. This meant a lot less energy and opportunity for getting active. I’d love to be writing another rosy reflection for the month, but sometimes that’s just not how things go and I think it’s important to share these times as much as it is to share the more positive ones. To get a sense of this month’s ups and downs you might want to check out my posts “The Slumps” and “The Unslumpening”.

With all that said, here are my reflections for each intention.

#1 Intention: Rise and Shine

My first 2022 Intention was to ”Rise and Shine”. To get up when I (first) wake up. Given my normal sleep patterns I decided to wake and get up at 5 a.m. (with a 9-9:30 sleep target to ensure I got enough sleep to feel rested).

In March, I found that I needed more sleep and it was very challenging to get up (and stay up). It was a month of sleeping in a little bit more and lot’s of naps.

How do I feel? Sluggish and, if I’m fully honest with myself, a bit lazy. I know I said intentions are not about feeling guilty and bad about myself, but these feelings sometimes trickle in. Not getting off to a good start each day, made it even more challenging to live into my other intentions. But today is a new day and new opportunity for a fresh start (as is everyday), so I’m still optimistic in the big picture.

#2 Intention: Move

My second 2022 Intention was to “Move”. To get my body moving daily whether it be doing yoga, or taking a walk, or going for a bike ride or swim it’s all good. The idea here was whether I feel fresh or tired, I‘ll choose to move.

Getting my butt off the chair was as challenging this month as “rising and shining” and there is absolutely a connection between the two. I got a rash on my wrist and ended up taking a break from wearing my Apple Watch so I don’t have tracking for the month, but it was way down for sure.

How do I feel? Well, sluggish as I mentioned above, but I know what I need to do. My plan is to take a small step back in the amount of exercise I’m targeting each day and ease back into it with gentler yoga routines and shorter walks/bike rides. Focusing more on starting to move vs. how much I move. Feel free to leave me a pep talk in the comments to cheer me forward. Hehe.

#3 Intention: Be

My third 2022 Intention was to “Be”. To meditate each day.

I’ve been less consistent in March, but still meditating more than not. I’m now at a modest four day streak and feeling better.

How do I feel? At this point I think you know…I feel sluggish. I also noticed on days that I didn’t meditate I started to feel some anxiety (which is not too common for me as I usually lean toward depression vs. anxiety). I definitely know meditation is good for me and I’m feeling better these past few days for it.

#4 Intention: Create

My fourth 2022 Intention was to “Create”. To write and or create art each day.

Well, here is one area that I have been living up to fully every day. Since January, I’ve written every day and created illustrations/art on many days as well. I’ve posted over 150 blog posts so far this year and I’ve got a great month planned ahead for April as it is both poetry month and the #AtoZChallenge. Check out my theme reveal for the #AtoZChallenge and look forward to some seriously silly poetry all month long in April. In addition, The Golden Shovel is back for April! I invite you to join in.

How do I feel? Inspired! There is nothing like creating something from nothing. I love it. I even submitted a collection of poetry to a publisher for consideration. Wish me luck!

Well there they are. My 2022 March reflections. While I will not make any changes to my intentions overall, as mentioned, I will adjust my “move” expectations to help me ease back into a more active daily pattern.

How was March for you?

Be well,

Monty

• Under the Earth’s Shadow
• Blue Heron
• Endure Me
• Departing
• Scenes from Today

I caught the slumps. I get them periodically. The thesaurus calls them the doldrums or malaise, but the slumps are what I got. It’s not quite the dumps, but heading downward in that direction. I try to look-up, but all I see is the floor. I’m walking around feeling quite poor. I’m struggling writing this piece. I feel I’ve nothing meaningful to say on this day. But I write on. I write on. I write on and on thinking I might write my way to having something to say.

My dog, Jack, seems to know. He comes over periodically offering his cold nose. He bumps me asking me to play. It works for me, he seems to say. When he realizes I’m not up for his advice, he settles for a rub and a hug and meanders away. Suit yourself, he says. Have it your way.

Of course, I know Jack’s right. The best way to get out of the slumps is to play. It’s why I keep finding rhymes while writing on this way. It’s not as fun as the bouncy ball to Jack, but it helps me get on track. If I keep writing on it won’t be long till I’m back.

Be well,

Monty

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I wrote about my 2022 Intentions (as an alternative to resolutions) during the new year. After wrapping up February it’s time to reflect again. As a reminder, “intentions” are the behaviors and attitudes that I intend to promote and champion within myself each day. The intent is to do (be) my best on any given day…in any given moment. There are no rules. No broken promises. Just good intentions.

As I write this I’m recovering (I hope!) from a pretty nasty cold which has me in a bit of a downer mood, but I fully expect this to be a temporary situation and I’m putting the work in everyday to get through these periodic troughs.

#1 Intention: Rise and Shine

My first 2022 Intention was to ”Rise and Shine”. To get up when I (first) wake up. Given my normal sleep patterns I decided to wake and get up at 5 a.m. (with a 9-9:30 sleep target to ensure I got enough sleep to feel rested). In January, I had lived into this intention every day and the same is true for February.

How do I feel? I’m still feeling GREAT (aside from the darn cold, that is)! Waking up early is the gift that gives back as it gives me the time and energy to do anything else that I want to do in any given day.

#2 Intention: Move

My second 2022 Intention was to “Move”. To get my body moving daily whether it be doing yoga, or taking a walk, or going for a bike ride or swim it’s all good. The idea here was whether I feel fresh or tired, I‘ll choose to move.

In January, I had made significant gains in my movement with exercising in some fashion everyday. For the most, part I’ve continued to increase my rate of movement in February. I did have a couple days (yesterday and today) that I didn’t clock any exercise, but I’ve got a cold and it’s perfectly reasonable to rest my body. That’s the great thing about intentions vs. resolutions. Missing a day is just a minor blip. No worries.

I averaged just over 9300 steps per day in February (about double my six-month average).

I averaged 1.5 hours exercise per day in February (about 30 minutes longer than my six-month average).

For the most part my day included 20-35 minutes of yoga, 45-60 minutes of walking, and I also added indoor bicycling this month as I got myself a “semi-smart” exercise bike as a new toy to play with this year. I look forward to more rides during March.

How do I feel? Still GREAT! Definitely feel the exercise is improving my overall mood and resilience both physically and mentally.

#3 Intention: Be

My third 2022 Intention was to “Be”. To meditate each day. In January, I meditated every morning for about 10 minutes and I kept that up during February. According to my tracking App, I’ve now meditated for 57 days in a row. Not bad.

How do I feel? At this point I think you know…I feel GREAT! I know. I know. It’s getting repetitive (again), but it’s the truth.

#4 Intention: Create

My fourth 2022 Intention was to “Create”. To write and or create art each day. In January, I wrote every day at least once and often created an illustration as well. The same has been true for February. In, fact I’ve generated over 100 written (often illustrated) pieces so far this year.

How do I feel? Inspired! (Thought I was going to say great, didn’t you?). There is nothing like creating something from nothing. I love it. Some of the poetry pieces I feel good enough about to try and publish. Fun stuff!

Well there they are. My 2022 February reflections. I’m feeling very positive about my intentions and I don’t have any adjustments to make at this time.

How about you?

Be well,

Monty

• Under the Earth’s Shadow
• Blue Heron
• Endure Me
• Departing
• Scenes from Today